As new Colorado State coach Jim McElwain put together his first class in Fort Collins, it was obvious that size was the biggest change he wanted to bring to the football team. His first class, 24 players in all, put premium on size and versatility as he puts leads CSU into the future.

That size extended from positions like the offensive and defensive lines to wide receivers.

“Lightweights don’t fight heavyweights,” McElwain said. “One of the things we needed to do is make sure we’re strong up the middle and strong at the line of scrimmage. If you win the battle in the trenches you have a great chance of being successful.”

None are bigger than 6-2, 320-pound defensive lineman Shaq Walker out of Barnsville, Ga., and the 6-3, 320-pound Calvin Tonga, a junior college transfer. The CSU interior defensive line needed a) bodies and b) big bodies. Walker and Tonga are two of three that will call CSU home for the next few years.

“I told him that part of my job as a coach is to be a mentor and to teach African-American boys how to be men. And when they make a mistake, it’s my job to try to help pick them up. Because too often, they don’t have anybody to show them the way.”

Pac-12 football recruiting had not made much noise nationally, in large part to four schools changing head coaches and several school having only enough roster room to accommodate relatively small classes.

But the league has caused quite a stir today, national signing day:

*** Southern California pulled four-star defensive end Leonard Williams out of Daytona Beach, Fla. Williams also considered Florida and Auburn.

*** Arizona State nabbed a four-star running back from Blinn Community College in Texas when Marion Grice picked the Sun Devils over Mississippi. Grice had previously said he may not commit on signing day because he needed more time to mull over his decision.

*** Bralon Addison, a four-star, national top-250 wide receiver from Missouri City (Texas) Hightower, outside Houston, signed with Oregon. He originally committed to Texas A&M before re-opening his recruitment.

Women’s lacrosse would become CU’s 17th NCAA-sanctioned sport. A minimum of 16 sports must be conducted for a university to retain Division I status.

Bohn told the Camera’s Kyle Ringo in December that the school would add a women’s sport. Choosing women’s lacrosse comes as no surprise. Bohn previously pointed out that girls lacrosse is the fastest growing high school sport in Colorado. That gives CU a local reporting base.

Bohn previously stated that he hoped the new sport could begin competition by the 2013-14 academic year.

At 6:08 a.m., 8 minutes after the fax machine in Colorado’s football offices were to begin buzzing, the first Buffs signee turned out to be CU’s most highly rated.

Yuri Wright, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound cornerback who starred at high school power Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey, is a 4-star prospect ranked the No. 85 nationally (all positions) by Rivals.com. That makes him the highest rated CU signee since 2009 (defensive end Nick Kasa).

As college football fans are aware, Wright comes with some baggage, having been expelled from Don Bosco earlier this month for posting offensive tweets. Michigan revoked its offer to Wright but Colorado, which has recruited Wright for more than a year, and other schools didn’t back off.

Cornerback was considered a critical position of need for Colorado for this recruiting cycle. Today, The Buffs also are expected to land another 4-star cornerback, Kenneth Crawley of H.D. Woodson High School in Washington D.C.

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Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.